Introduction to Fleetwood Mac and the purpose of the corpus

My corpus consists of the 17 studio albums released by the band Fleetwood Mac. Also known in the earlier years as Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. I choose this corpus, because Fleetwood Mac is my favorite musical artist and the band has topped my Spotify wrapped ever since I got a Spotify subscription a few years ago. I think this corpus will be interesting, because there have been a lot of changes to the bands line-up, especially in their earlier years. Below is a list of the albums and the changes of the band members (and their primary instruments) that helped create the album. Only two band members, Mick Fleetwood (drums) and John McVie (bass), have been in the band since the start and have performed on every album. Which is why their names are not included in the list.

Albums and the changes in band line-ups


+ Peter Green (guitar/ lead and backing vocals), Jeremy Spencer (slide guitar/ piano /lead and backing vocals), - Fleetwood Mac (1968) (Also known as Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac) - Mr. Wonderful (1968)

+ Danny Kirwan (guitar/ lead and backing vocals) - Then Play On (1969)

- Peter Green - Kiln House (1970)

- Jeremy Spencer + Bob Welch (guitar/ lead and backing vocals), Christine McVie (keyboards/ lead and backing vocals) - Future Games (1971) - Bare Trees (1972)

- Danny Kirwan + Bob Weston (lead guitar/ backing vocals), Dave Walker (lead and backing vocals/ harmonica) - Penguin (1973)

- Dave Walker - Mystery to Me (1973)

- Bob Weston - Heroes Are Hard to Find (1974)

- Bob Welch + Lindsey Buckingham (guitar/ lead and backing vocals), Stevie Nicks (lead and backing vocals/ tambourine) - Fleetwood Mac (1975) (Also known as “The White Album”) - Rumours (1977) - Tusk (1979) - Mirage (1982) - Tango in the Night (1987)

- Lindsey Buckingham + Billy Burnette (rhythm guitar/ backing and lead vocals), Rick Vito (lead guitar/ backing and lead vocals) - Behind the Mask (1990)

- Stevie Nicks, Rick Vito + Bekka Bramlett (lead and backing vocals), Dave Mason (lead guitar/ backing and lead vocals) - Time (1995)

- Billy Burnette, Bekka Bramlett, Dave Mason, Christine McVie + Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks - Say You Will (2003)

- Lindsey Buckingham + Christine McVie, Neil Finn (rhythm guitar/ lead and backing vocals), Mike Campbell (lead guitar)


The band started out as a blues band, but since the addition of Christine McVie after the album “Kiln House” the style of the band shifted to rock. I expect there to be quite a few differences between these earlier albums and the others. Their second self-titled album was the breakthrough for the band and got them global success. This was the first album released since the addition of the duo Lindsey Buckingham and Stevey Nicks. The members of the band that released this album is the most well known line-up and brought the band the most succes in the 5 albums they released as a core. It will be interesting to look at what this line-up did different, that brought them this success.

Album valence and energy comparison.

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Chart B